In order to accomplish anything, we need a sense of certainty. Our references help us to build this important emotional state. However, if we have no experience in doing something, how can we be certain about it? Realize you’re not limited to your actual experience: your imagination has unlimited references to support you. – Tony Robbins

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.-Roberto Assagioli

Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions.-Edward Coke

You should have certainty in what you do. ‘Faith’ and ‘trust’ are words that put the power in the hands of an outside force that we are meant to rely on – whether it is God or a person or the universe. Certainty puts the power back in our hands.-Yehuda Berg

If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.-William Lyon Phelps

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If you have any kind of ‘story’ in your life from yesterday to way back in childhood, this stuff can help.

I have also heard, read about and used some other techniques that can help. NLP, Tony Robbins have some.

One was taking the image you have of the bad memory. First muffle the sound so you can hardly hear it. Then make the image black and white like an old TV. Then shrink the image in your mind’s eye so it seems about one inch. Then push it down and to the left. That’s your memory. Not so bad when shrunk, muffled, B/W and off to the side. Sometimes you need to repeat it a few times but it helps a lot…

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Editing Your Life’s Stories Can Create Happier Endings

It was a rainy night in October when my nephew Lewis passed the Frankenstein statue standing in front of a toy store. The 2 1/2 year-old boy didn’t see the monster at first, and when he turned around, he was only inches from Frankenstein’s green face, bloodshot eyes, and stitches-covered skin.

The 4-foot-tall monster terrified my nephew so much that he ran deep into the toy store. And on the way back out, he simply couldn’t face the statue. He jumped into his mother’s arms and had to bury his head in her shoulder.

For hours after the incident, Lewis was stuck. He kept replaying the image of Frankenstein’s face in his mind. “Mom, remember Frankenstein?” he asked over and over again. He and his mom talked about how scary the statue was, how Lewis had to jump into her arms. It was “like a record loop,” my sister said.

But then, suddenly, Lewis’ story completely changed. My sister was recounting the tale to the family: how they left the store, how they had to walk by Frankenstein. And then — “I peed on him!!” Lewis blurted out triumphantly, with a glint in his eyes.

In that instant, Lewis had overpowered Frankenstein — if only in his mind.

“Well, your nephew is a brilliant story editor,'” says psychologist Tim Wilson of the University of Virginia.

Wilson has been studying how small changes in a person’s own stories and memories can help with emotional health. He calls the process “story editing.” And he says that small tweaks in the interpretation of life events can reap huge benefits.

This process is essentially what happens during months, or years, of therapy. But Wilson has discovered ways you can change your story in only about 45 minutes.

Wilson first stumbled on the technique back in the early 1980s, when he found that a revised story helped college students who were struggling academically. “I’m bad at school” was the old story many of them were telling themselves. That story leads to a self-defeating cycle that keeps them struggling, Wilson says.

The new story Wilson gave them was: “Everyone fails at first.” He introduced the students to this idea by having them read accounts from other students who had struggled with grades at first and then improved. It was a 40-minute intervention that had effects three years later.

“The ones who got our little story-editing nudge improved their grades, whereas the others didn’t,” Wilson says. “And to our surprise … those who got our story-editing intervention were more likely to stay in college. The people in the control group were more likely to drop out.”

Similar interventions have also helped students feel like they fit in socially at college and have helped parents to stop abusing their kids.

The idea is that if you believe you are something else — perhaps smarter, more socially at ease — you can allow for profound changes to occur.

You can even try story-editing yourself at home with these writing exercises. Simply pick a troubling event. And write about it for 15 minutes each day for four days. That’s it.

These exercises have been shown to help relieve mental anguish, improve health and increase attendance at work.

No one is sure why the approach works. But Wilson’s theory is that trying to understand why a painful event happened is mentally consuming. People get stuck in thinking, “Why did he leave me?” or “Why was she so disappointed in me?” Or for Lewis, “Where did that scary Frankenstein face come from?”

As you write about the troubling, confusing event again and again, eventually you begin to make sense of it. You can put those consuming thoughts to rest.

So as you look forward to changing yourself this year, consider looking back on whatever your Frankensteins may be. And if you squint your eyes a little and turn your head just a bit, you may see that your leg was lifted. That maybe you did pee on him after all.

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26 Public Speaking Tips from an Actor & Professional Speaker
By Michael Port

I may need to add a rider to my liability insurance policy for Carpel Tunnel Syndrome because people at the Think Big Speak Easy take so many notes.

Here is just one page of notes from one participant from the first two hours of day one:

The speech starts with your bio before you walk on stage. Bio should be over the top powerful and impressive. Then open with something sincere and self-effacing to disarm the audience.
You DON’T have to tell them what you’re going to tell them. Open with a surprise, a shock…an interaction, something that makes connection, entertains, exposes, etc.
You need to cut lots of info OUT of your stories and better detail with specifics critical parts of your stories. How much do they need to know to get to the a-ha moment; less than you think.
An entire story is designed to serve the end.
Establish right away that you know what the world looks like for them—and what it could look like. Vividly paint the picture.
You must reward them for doing something or contributing in some way.
Use palm up instead of finger for pointing. Sometimes the finger looks like a gun and is rude in some cultures. Palm up serves up the floor to them in a more gracious way.

People say “Yes” when we’ve affected them intellectually, emotionally or physically.
If you’re teaching content (which has some differences from a “message” speech) outline first then go back and unpack it. Outline and then make the case.
Use props. What can you show, demo, depict with things rather than words.
Use contrast/extremes to create excitement and keep attention. Contrast can be emotional, physically, structural. This is basic in every great play, film, and music composition.
Keep your energy and speech moving forward. Never let the energy drop.
Audiences like to think that events on the stage are happening spontaneously. They like to be surprised. The great actor does this brilliantly. The Speaker needs to as well.
Love Michael’s phrase: STAND AND LAND. Let your punch lines, point lines and purpose lines land.
You can move and talk at the same time (people do it all the time in real life) but not on or over the most important points.
Don’t say, “I’m glad to be here.” Audience should see that in your presentation. No need to tell them.
Don’t tell them you’re going to tell a story. Just tell the story.
Every rule is made to be broken but to break a performance/stage rule you have to know the rules, why they exist and why you’re breaking them (only do it for a better result).
Be very conscientious about connecting the dots or you’ll lose your audience.
When giving info for people to write down, give them time to write it down for goodness sake.
You can blow their mind in just a few minutes (example: TED talks). Never apologize for the amount of time you don’t have. They should feel that the amount of time you have is the perfect amount of time.
Audiences love to be let out a few minutes early—even if they LOVE your performance.
Enlist the self-proclaimed experts in the room. It’ll help knock the chips off their shoulders and get them on your side supporting your message.
Slight embellishment and/or combining stories into one better story is fine. It’s a performance, a show. Go for what is most dramatic and effective to get your message across.
Remember they don’t know what you know. It’s the first time they’ve heard your info.
Show them what the world will look like if they DON’T change, if the DON’T follow your advice.
Remember, this was just one page of notes from one participant in the Think Big Speak Easy.

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(Simple Stuff is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff..)

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.-Thomas Paine

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I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.-Rosa Parks

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Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.-Arthur Koestler

–Everyone gets scared, everyone has fear. It’s what you do next that counts. It’s how you overcome the fear, or use it, that sets you apart. –L. James Frey

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Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.-Marianne Williamson

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Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.-Samuel Butler

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To him who is in fear everything rustles.-Sophocles

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Fear is excitement without breath.-Robert Heller

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No good work is ever done while the heart is hot and anxious and fretted.-Olive Schreiner

–If you can change your state of mind, then the fear will disappear. You need to change from a state of fear or uncertainty, to a state of certainty.-Tony Robbins

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In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.-Bill Cosby

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We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.-Eleanor Roosevelt

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.-Mark Twain

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I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.-Nelson Mandela

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Have you ever known anyone who was stuck in the past? How do you help them break free… into the adventures of the present and future?

This is really pretty cool, and entertaining.

It is from Robbins-Madanes Training – robbinsmadanestraining.com

In today’s intervention, you’ll meet an award-winning songwriter whose life was being ruined by feelings of doubt, fear, and isolation. Within minutes, Tony saw that she was suffering from a belief system and emotional pattern from her past. Within 25 minutes with Tony, she was free, with both eyes open.

The strangest thing is… this intervention is so FUNNY. In the midst of understanding and helping this Aimee, Tony at his hilarious best. Enjoy!

Cosmologists are closing in one a radical theory of the universe that will link it to human life in a very intimate way. Instead of a cold, lifeless void, the cosmos is about to emerge as a living thing whose operations are intelligent and conscious. What does that have to do with meeting your next deadline and cutting your work week back from sixty to eighty hours? Let me explain.

One of the classic laws of physics is known as the Law of Least Action, which says (in simplified form) that Nature takes the shortest, most efficient route to accomplish things. From chemical reactions to the curving arc followed by a baseball, whatever is the least action needed is the amount of energy consumed. This is the physics equivalent of saying that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

You can confirm a straight line simply by looking at it, but when a baseball is thrown, Nature computes trajectory, gravity, momentum, mass, and friction all at once to arrive at least action, and it happens instantly and automatically. Change one element in the equation – such as throwing the ball on a rainy day – and adjustment is made immediately.

If the Law of Least Action was applied to the human brain, productivity would increase tenfold, because making a decision would be an automatic, effortless computation of all the variables involved. Such a possibility seems far-fetched, however, when you consider that any decision you make in business – such as hiring a new employee – enters into various gray areas. Is the new hire honest, reliable, experienced, capable in a crisis, a team player? The productivity of a new employee involves these variables and more.

But consider this: Your brain already operates by the Law of Least Action. Every electrical impulse traveling down a neuron, every chemical reaction leaping across a synapse, must obey this law. That implies that there is an efficient state of the brain as a whole. This, too, is a reality. If asked to add 2+2, your brain gives the answer instantly, unlike a computer, which must actually calculate any problem posed to it. The human mind works by a combination of insight, creativity, memory, quantum leaps of creativity, and other aspects unknown to computers. And much if not all of this is done according to the Law of Least Action.

Therefore, the ultimate productivity hack is this: give the Law of Least Action a chance. Stop interfering with it.

Tips for promoting least action:

Get enough sleep.
Promote an open environment for the exchange of ideas
Allow free communication at every level of work and management
Support the whole group emotionally
Ask for honest feedback
Make every worker feel valued

The Law of Least Action is stymied when we complicate our lives. All of the tips I’ve listed are needless complications to the smooth flow of work. But the world’s wisdom traditions go much deeper into the matter. They point to consciousness as the key. If you expand our awareness (through meditation, reflection, contemplation, and closely examining yourself) you will reach a level of the mind where least action can work much more efficiently. Solutions will come far more quickly because you won’t be stuck at the level of the problem. Carrying out bold plans will not create resistance and stress because you will trust the source of thought deep inside yourself.

In the future I anticipate that the link between cosmos and mind will only grow stronger. In the meantime, we have enough evidence from neuroscience, physics, and the world’s great thinkers to begin trusting in the Law of Least Action and applying it to daily life.

Deepak Chopra, MD, Founder of The Chopra Foundation, Co-Founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, Author of What Are You Hungry For? and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success